So we're bringing in the heavy hitters for these moments.
And right now joining us is Robert Johnson, former ute and NFL dB Rojoe.
How you doing, Hey, I'm doing good.
How you doing? Oh? You're lying to me. I can feel it. I can hear it in your voice. You're having a bad You need a shoulder to cry on.
Come on, tell me what what's going on? Football is back in So it ain't. No, I'm not fad now.
I hear you. I hear you. Okay. I don't ask me why I thought this, but I did.
The NFL Hall of Fame game happened last night, and I love to watch a lot of the induction speeches. And I'm curious about your football experience. So you're you're going into the Hall of Fame, all right, and there's a story that happened in your life.
There was a moment that changed it all for you.
Tell me what that was where you just fell in love with football or it just you just knew that was what you were going to do.
I mean, the best, the main example, the biggest story that I can tell that that set me up for football was playing baseball, which is strange. Playing baseball yeah, it was just happened to be that. Coming around the base instead of sliding to the home plate, I ran. I ran through the back catcher and.
Plate.
And I remember the coach from the other team. He was a football coach, and he was just like, I need to find your mom and I need to find your mommy brother. Just you're somebody, because somebody got account for you. Like do you play football? And I was like no, I never played flag and just you know, just always played all the other sports but never played And he said, I need to put you in football.
And then that's when it all started. That's when everything started to wow, start to take off and started goes goes all the way back to baseball. Baseball when I was a kid, I was around seven years old. I remember eight, eight or seven because I remember going to the second grade when well I was going to the thirty year. I think when that happened.
Did you did you keep playing baseball as you grew up or did or was that it? You were just like I just like hitting people, and uh, this is what I gotta do.
Oh that was it. That was it. It was just like no more baseball. Even though I was always a good center fielder. So I always felt and that's you know, you think about centerfield safety or right field, left field, those are the best safeties. It just kind of makes sense, you know. And yeah, I ran off with football, and then basketball was one of my main sports. And then football was just enough. I can be physical. I didn't have to worry about nobody getting in trouble if I ran into anybody.
I love it. I love it.
And so your your three conferences ago, right, you're Mount West guy?
Yeah, Mount West I was.
I was four conferences a go, like, we didn't have face masks. That's that's how fun? What what what does it mean to you to look at this program and you you were a part of some really good teams. You saw a big transferformation for the program. But what does it meant to you? What's it been like for you to see kind of the rise, to see the progression of the program and even college football and where it is today?
Well, I mean college football has completely changed. The landscape is so different, you know, it's such a It's a great way of looking at it because I always tell myself that back then, if they've had this playoff thing, you know, when I was when I was a part of the undervieated season. We could have at least shown exactly the type of domination that we was able to do against teams. But you know, like right now, the NFL, the NCAA layout is it's it's tough. It seemed like
we're there. They're still trying things right now, and this year, I know that the NFL playoff picture has changed, so I know they're trying things. And to talk about the University of Utah conference wise and just where we started,
you know, and where everything has happened. And I think I've said this before on the radio station or on our show, on your show, is that when I go back home people, when I go back to California, go back to Los Angeles, people are really wearing Utah stuff, and it always like like throws me up, Like, man, nobody knew anything about Utah when I was saying I'm about to go to Utah.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Yeah, it changes up everything. But I'm really happy and proud of the program and whereas and where is it going because it's still it's still going high, which is unique in its own way. Because now University of Utah has gotten some respect from a lot of those colleges. That's that's a Southern you know a lot of those southern colleges. They all know about Utah and it's been it's been a great experience to just say that I am a University of Utah youth.
How much money do you think you would have been worth? In nil?
Exactly? I mean we cracked jokes about it, and I always tell myself, I'm like, they could have gave me just sixty thousand, I'd have been fining. Me and my family have been fine, we can you know, we can make that work. But gosh, like I just wish I could have got all the free stuff that they're getting, all the endorsements, because Comcast had a picture of me when I was when I was going to the University of Utah, and they wouldn't even give me a discount on Comcast back then.
Do you think you would have transferred? Do you think you would have ever entered the porter?
Was there was there a time when you were playing you go, boy, I wish I you know, things maybe aren't working the way I want or might be a better opportunity that ever cross your mind.
It's pretty funny that you speak about that because me and my group of my group of Hall of famers, that's why I said my Sugar Bowl team, we always kind of talk about it a little bit because you know, back then, the school that I want you, that's the school that you was representing. You was part of. You know, you loved your school. And right now it's a lot of the player that's not loyal to you. They're not
loyal right now. They followed the money. So in my case, being that you know, immature, you know as well as I would say my age at that time, it matters where my family was standing at right at that moment. Because I believe that if it wasn't for coach Toataki, that that looked at me and seen me as a good player, I don't think I would have been able to go anywhere. So I think my loyalty would have stayed here at the University of Utah as long as coach of Taki it was part of the coaching staff.
I believe in my heart, I wouldn't I wouldn't win anywhere. Now if he would have left, then that would have changed, you know, that would change up a mindset. But yeah, I believe I would have been loyal to the soil when it comes to the University of Utah, in the state of Utah, how they put their hands and hugged me and kept me good. So no, I don't I really don't believe I would have left the University of Utah no matter what the type of money that was being thrown at me.
You know, I hadn't thought about that question until, you know, I was thinking about what I wanted to ask you today, and I just thought, I wonder, because you know, I was thinking of myself, what I would I ever consider what I have ever considered leaving? And uh, and we we had some lean years back when I was playing, but but a lot of those same reasons. I don't know if there's something about this loyalty, there's something about uh, you know, the you just feel that you feel that
into your program. I wonder how many players today where they've transferred a couple of times, you know that I don't know that they'll ever have that or maybe I guess they will with whatever the last team they were with. I just I just think that would be I think that loyalty thing would be a hard thing to get over now having you know, maybe you are in a bad spot. I don't know, and then you go, you know, maybe there is a better, better opportunity for me, but but I think it'd be hard.
I really do yese.
And then think about this as a sucky feeling one like me as a as a retiring fl player that when I was watching the Hall of Fame game last night, DJ the quarterback DJ, I can never say his last name, right, the one that bounced around, the one that went from
yeah him. Like when they pulled up his stats and everything in stat line, it's like, you know, I wish some of the players were really some of the current players the same college would look at that stat line and really look at it and like, you know, look at the details. Because he was once one of the highest ranked high school prospects coming out of high school, and he went to a school that he did really good.
Then he bounced to another school, which was Oregon State and did okay, and then he bounced to the Tenant Well, he bounced to Florida State, and then he had had a rough, rough season and then he wind up being undrafted. See, so so I wish some players would look at it in the way of like is it really worth it to not show any loyalty because then you think that
your NFL career is going to take off. But I'm not saying that he's a terrible player, but he's tagged right now as one of those journey players now of like how loyal would he be to a team? So he wounded up being a free free agent pickup.
One of the things in the Utah program that's been kind of a staple has been that loyalty, but it's also been the development of players. And you really, and I'm sure you went through that. Tell me a little bit about your experience with kind of growing and developing in the program and getting your opportunity to play, and how much it meant to you.
Well, it helped so much because Kosataki when he came and got me, he the first thing he said was, hey, we we really don't have a set position for you. So we really don't have a seposition for you, but I really believe that you can do something special for the for the program, and for me, it was like somebody giving me the opportunity. So when I came out here to the University of Utah back in the day,
is my very first week here a training camp. You know, I was playing receiver, corner and safety and you know, and I had a red jersey in a white jersey, and right at that moment, nobody knew exactly where it was going to place me. But it was just like whatever position that we put you, and we can develop you into that position. And you know, I got really lucky where I had Coach Odham at that time. Coach Odham was my position coach, and Coach Scaley was our GA at that time.
Wow. And the development.
Part, yeah, the development part was tough because I was a lean guy, you know, like I was a tall, skinier on the slim side. And it turned into like Coach Odham was just like, hey, we put some weight on you. We can place you in different spots. And it just happened. Like all the developed part of it just happened because the loyalty of the alumni of alums that's there at the University of Utah. They talked to
me a lot. Because that first year, if y'all remember, even the fans that's listen, we played we had a points ahead a game against Navy that year. We made it to the points head of bow and it's in San Diego. Eric Weddle came and spoke to me, like, you know, one on one, and I just was like like, man, this is this is crazy, you know, like it's just an NFL player that's talking to me and you're talking about safety, pride and.
You know it.
It made me feel like I can develop here and I can develop on a different level that even if I didn't make it to the pros, at least I will make some really good connections with some friends and some alums that I know that it's time needed. Where I'm done with football, I can lean on them. So the development was out was not even just straight football. It was outside of football because that's how the University of Utah works.
This time of year, of course, camp is starting, NFL camps starting, and college. What does this time of year mean to you when you're going back to camp? Do you still feel it in your body? What does it mean to you?
It's such a right now because I'm not playing, but no, it's it's so different. I literally just sent a video to one of my good friends that I played flag football with my current player flag football with him, and I was showing a video the day in the Life of the Tennessee Titan, and they was talking about Randolly. I think his name is Randell the receiver, the little fast receiver. They were showing about the day in the life and he was like, I start my day off
at five forty five in the morning. I was just like, man, I remember when I had to start my days off at that time. But it's it's nice to see things like that on social media. And it does suck sometimes because I still mentally feel like, oh, I can get it done, but physically, you know, I'm thirty eight years old. My body is not going to hold up for a
day of practice. But I miss it. And this is always that time of the year where it feels like life is finally great again because football is back in. But it's definitely enjoyable, and it just makes you miss it if you really have that big heart for football.
So you listen to some of the coaches up on the hill talk about they got a lot of players, you know that they like that not necessarily all of them have experience, and yeah, how long does it take for a player like you know, they've got some of the they got to figure out kind of some of the dbs. They got to figure out some of the defensive linemen. And uh, and how long do you think
that process takes? Uh, when you go into fall camp and can you can you get up to speed, can you get where you're playing at a high level or at least an efficient level, or or does it take you know, two or three games or a season or half a season? How long does it take for a new guy with with talent and but but still kind of raw to get kind of really flowing and playing at a high level.
I go into a numbers game, like to me, like, you can go into training camp and do everything in training camp. That's cool, That's that's nice, you know, but you got to remember you going up against teammates and yeah, it might get it might get tough. You know, by the end of the day they wear the same color
as you. So what I like to tell my tell myself and also tell some of those new those newer players, It's like, by the time you hit that that hundred play mark, Like when you in the season, when you hit that hundred play mark, you you start knowing, you know,
you start like like getting the feel of it. And then now when you hit that hundred play mark, like you know the basics of playing in a Division one football game, but then also when there's something that's being thrown at you that might throw you off, it's okay, you won't you won't fall apart because now you've got a good base. So I always say, if a player, a student athlete can get to one hundred plays, you know, like by the time you get that hundred plays, it's
like everything started clicking. It's almost like working a normal job. Most people say that when you work most jobs, by the time you get to that six month period, everything start to click and then you start just like knowing.
I give it one hundred play mark because you got to think about this and for some of the fans that's not really familiar with it, is that defense wise, you get about like you get about thirty, you get about thirty to forty plays, and if your defense is not as strong, if it could push to sixty plays in one game. See, so I say, like to be on the safe side, maybe two and a half games, maybe three games in is when you finally start to like get that like, okay, now I'm comfortable. Now let's
you know, now I understand it. I understand what practice look like and things like that. So one hundred plays would be my guest my guestimate of like, now you adjust it, Now you got your you got your feet wet, now you deep in there, you know, now you're ready to play play.
Do you think maybe coaches look at that too and they go, all right, we're giving this. We got to give a guy a fair opportunity because it does take some time.
But do you think they kind of go, Okay, we're at our hundred playmark or.
Where at a certain level and he ain't getting it, so we're gonna we're gonna go in a different direction.
You feel like coaches maybe do that as well.
I feel sometimes they do, But then there's so many different variables. Because I'll use myself as an example. When I first got there at the University of Utah, the first game we played against Oregon State only had six plays I think, and three of the plays was a kickoff return. See, so I didn't really get like the live action. But then going into that second game where
we played against air Force. I think we played against air Force, I had about fifteen I think fifteen sixteen plays, and you know, four of them was a special teams, but the rest of them was I was on the field and like I made a couple of tackles that game, and you know, and it was like I'm starting to get the field of this Division one football, Like, Okay,
it's going pretty good. And then you know, a variable was thrown in because maybe coach Otaki or maybe coach Coach Anderson at that time was kind of ramping me up to like get me prepared for it. But then when we lost those first two games, it was like, okay, we might need to we might need to throw throw a wrench into this plan and change up some stuff.
And then we wind up playing against UCLA and there was ranked number eleven and at that time, and coach Anderson just was like, okay, Roger, you're starting this game.
See.
So it was it's a lot of variables that throws into it because you might have a coach that might want to see a player get a couple of reps in and see how they react, and then they're like, okay, we might want to you know, put them on the shelf for a little bit. But then injuries happen or the season is already not going the way that you thought, and it's like, maybe we need to throw this player in and see how it goes. So it's a lot of experience, Like it's a lot of experimental things that
happens that you have to do as a coach. So I don't know what every coach thinks about, but I do know that when when things happen, players get hurt or a player not performing to the to the ability that they thought, that's when you start going to that, hey, we might need to throw this kid in and see what happens.
Uh. College camp is a month.
And there's a lot of practice and there's there's no games, like like it's the NFL.
You know, you start having games and it's a better thing.
Uh.
I have two questions about that.
One, do you think that it can hurt you as a player because you're you almost over practice or overtrain or you know there's and and you don't know you don't have the barometer of a game to kind of gauge how where you are in your performance.
Uh.
And Two would it makes sense to change this, like to have maybe a non conference game like a it's like a preseason game, it doesn't count. Maybe you play more regular season games during the season. But you know what, it what it makes sense to to put in a you know, maybe it's a scrimmage against another school or something anything, or a game or a non confidence anything.
I don't so so practicing too.
Long and the idea of actually having a non conference game in the middle of the summer while you're going through this month of practice.
Well, you mentioned it, and you know Deon Sanders, you know coach Bryan he he mentioned this. I think was either last season or a year. A year he was trying to get I think it was Syracuse. He was trying to get the University of Syracuse where they can have like a practice against each other because in the NFL we do that a lot.
In the NFL.
When I was playing for the Tennessee Titans, we drove down to Atlanta to go scrimmage or go scrimmage against the Atlanta Falcons. And this was before we even had a we had a scrimm. We had a preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons that saying week, which was always kind of strange because it's like I'm practicing against them and we and now we got to have a TV game.
It was just always a little bit weird, but I really believe that they should add that end there, because that would be really cool to kind of add that. But then it does at that dynamic of like a player being injured or you know, something might happen where where you know, big fights, you know, things like that. It's it's a lot of it's a lot of things
that can happen. But I feel like they should we should have it because you can only do so many mental reps and then you can only be so physical with your own teammates without feeling like you're trying to you're trying to mess up their career.
See.
I think we should get a team like b YU, bring them in, you know, kind of kind of a lesser opponent, just you know, a lower.
Tier h I ain't deal with them not heck, then that maybe Weaver State, you know, Utah State, those who's but not not team down South because that rival that practice practice won't finish. Well, my team practice won't finish.
I wouldn't it be fun to watch and it'd be fun to be a part of the whole thing.
But you're totally right, though, I feel like I feel like like maybe it's the NCAA. I mean, the way the NCAA is going, this is turning into a professional professional college experience pretty much. So it's like if the professionals is doing it, the NCAA might turn around and
start agreeing with it. Of like you can play against your local colleges and you know, and not have anything that's like too crazy, because I can fully see we were we were State coming down to us, or we're going up to Weaver State and have one practice, I have one or two practices against each other, you know, and kind of see what it's like to kind of
have some live bullets. I always say live bullets. I kind of have some live some live action of like somebody with a different color really trying to make the roster, trying to show that they're worth you know. I can see that being a really good thing. But the NCAA is the they monobolize everything. So if they can't make any money out of it, then maybe they might not want to do it.
Yeah, why why you do a good idea? Heaven forbid, it'd be a terrible thing.
Yep.
Okay, So I want you to take off your rose colored glasses. I want you to be completely objective with me. No, No, like Homer Speaker, where is this Utah football team this year?
I feel, and this is me coming from my mind because I haven't I haven't went to practices. I haven't seen the practices. I just be hearing. I think that the offense that we're putting in that is going to be a very It's gonna be a huge socker to a lot of the fans and also me myself because the way that this offense is set up, it's a powerful offense that can put up points. And I don't think that we're going to be used to seeing the points going up so fast if we're doing it the
right way. So I think this year is going to be one of those years of like the second game of the season is when you're we want to start seeing how the machine is going. So I really think that we should have a really good eat season. And the reason that is because we can put up big points. And now in college football, whoever can put up the most points, you know, it's like, well, I mean that's common sense. Once I talk about common sense, who put
up the most points? But I just think that we struggled a little bit with scoring, like it's like fast and scoring like you know, on drives that need to be done and right now with this new offense, we can score on one play easily and it could be a ten second, eighty hour drive like easy, you know, like a touchdown at it. So this year is just gonna be a little bit different for other fans to kind of see, like there's going to be a lot of the Utah man being played. From what I feel on Miami.
All right, I believe you. I actually am really excited.
I think this will be a lot to look forward to, and I think so much of it as some of these new young players jelling and like you said, getting that hundred reps in to really feel comfortable out out on the on the field. So it should be a lot of fun to watch. It's really been a pleasure having this conversation. Thanks for tuning in and giving your thoughts. I've really enjoyed it. And have a great guest your day.
Thank you, Thank you. Then quickly quickly I want to say, like I did, I never seen our Fiesta Bowl year, but I feel like our offense was kind of similar to the field, like this offense that's coming in and I'm not trying to put presson on the current team, but I really feel like this offense that we're doing that from what I keep hearing about, it's almost similar
to what I've heard about the Fiesta Bowl offense. Because I heard the Fiesta Bow offense was like they can score, like they was like Alex Smith had the team kind of rolling. So I think that this might be the same type of of that type of offense where you might have a receiver, you might might have a mad Dog, you know, Madison at tight end that's pretty much a real receiver. But then he works in the system as a tight end. So we'll see where it all goes.
But it's gonna be definitely exciting. And I really appreciate you at least giving me the time to speak about football.
No happy to do it. Anyways, Take care and have a good day.
You take care too, Go Utes.
Go utes.
All right, road Joe, he found football by accident by playing baseball. See all Roads Lead to Football, That's what happened. ESPN seven hundred listeners help children at the road home, start school and style. Stop by the advocates in Ogden, American Fork or Murray pick an apple from the tree, and you can supply clothing and backpacks for a child at the road home. Every child deserves an advocate. Stop by today. See ESPN seven hundred Sports dot com for more details.